Friday, February 13, 2009

Bizzy Beez in TandT

Well, like Che Lovelace said last night, I hit the ground running. That is, in TandT. I'm so happy I met him in NYC. For years when I lived here we moved in the same circles but never formally met. As a child I read his father's books. Earl Lovelace's "The Wine Of Astonishment" was a requisite on the reading list. Che brings out, besides other productions in art, this studiofilmclub, in collaboration with Peter Doig. You can see Che in one of the pics with Peter on the side. Again I'd heard lots about this in the past, had in fact seen Doig's posters first at the Art Gallery of Ontario some years ago, but only yesterday finally had the chance to see and participate in the studiofilmclub. It was a divine experience.

Not just the warehouse environment that could have been found in any artistic enclave in the world (Berlin, London, New York) but also the warm friendly people (definitely Trinis) but also the wonderful films. It's free to the public and showed two films; first a vintage film about Carnival in the 70s and then a documentary about Bob Marley entitled Exodus 77. For about half the movie I had the burning desire to pee but I didn't move for fear of missing a moment of the film, and an opportunity to hear Bob Marley speak. There can be no doubt that he is one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the 20th C.

Before this I was backstage at the Kings and Queens preliminaries at the Queens Park Savannah. My uncles, both immediate and once removed i.e my grandmother's brother, are building a costume. Lynn, I forget her last name, who lives in Toronto but was born in Trinidad, designed the queen for the band Masquerade. They've won several times and last year there was a big confusion I heard because they said the judges cheated. It went to court but I'm not sure what the outcome was. Bacchanal!

I'm meeting a lot of cool people and hopefully soon I'll have some friends to hang out with. I spend a lot of time with my friend Eugene because he lives down the block from me, but he's usually in bed by 8 and that doesn't work for a party girl like me.